Krakow, Bratislava, and more!

So sorry I haven't posted in forever...get ready for a giant post:

The week before last was pretty awesome. Some highlights:
-baked my Granny's pear cake from pears my host mom brought home. My host family and school friends and they LOVED it.
-went to an art opening, but it was super crowded so we left and went and chatted in a cafe for a couple hours...ya know, just a typical Czech evening.
-took a Czech quiz (yes, we still have school work)
-cooked dinner with 3 friends at one of their host houses
-Interviewed a guy from a non-profit cafe that helps people with Schizophrenia get work training and social support to eventually integrate into "normal" society (pretty much an amazing organization that I'm seriously considering intensely studying for my independent research project)
-saw a pug on the street and went up to pet it. It was cute, but didn't compare to Gary.
-shared the oreos and peanut butter my mom sent in a care package with my host mom. She LOVED it, too, and said she could now understand why Americans are so fat because they have such good junk food.


Alright, so then on Friday we left for our big trip to Krakow, Poland and then Bratislava, Slovakia (and then I went to Vienna, Austria with a couple of people on our own).

-Krakow was BEAUTIFUL. I would DEFINITELY recommend visiting there, if you ever get the chance. The town square is huge and there are churches everywhere and it is surprisingly modern (most people were more up with the latest fashion and out on the streets later).
-I went with a couple friends to a Jewish museum where they had an exhibition showcasing the stories of people who helped hide/rescue Jews during the Holocaust and also a photo exhibit with contemporary pictures of places where the Jewish culture used to flourish, places involved in the Holocaust, and places/events that are now actively remembering that culture and tragedy. It was very insightful and beautifully done. Then we went through the castle grounds, which were beautiful!
-Then the next day I went to Mass with one of my friends (in English). It was a really cool experience, although it was pretty much exactly like a church service in the US. That night we had dinner at a Jewish restaurant, which was a neat experience.
-Our last day in Krakow we went to the "Old Synagogue" museum, then to an old communist neighborhood/city called "Nowa Huta." It was pretty much a small city full of just housing blocks, but we went to visit an NGO that was running a theater within the community, so that was neat.

From Krakow we drove to a smaller town in Slovakia called "Zilina" where we visited yet another NGO that runs a cultural center in a small train station. Its called "Stanice," which means station, and they have performances, art shows, art classes, and such all the time. We saw a performance that evening that was really really cool. It was three guys (2 dancers, 1 cellist) performing just really cool movement and music and everything. Then that night we went out to dinner with the performers and staff from Stanice. I got the chance to speak with one of the staff there who is an art therapist. Now she has chosen to simply teach art classes and then use that art to help the people understand more about themselves (so kind of art therapy, but less explicitly so and not dealing with abnormal psychology so much), but that was really awesome to get to talk with her. Then the next day we helped rake and do a mosaic project at the park next to Stanice, then we left for Bratislava.

Bratislava is definitely no Krakow. For one, it was bombed during WWII, so it lost a lot of its buildings and then the Communists built a lot of ugly ones in their places. Also, its just not the same vibrancy as Krakow. The fashion is not so modern, the streets are relatively empty and the restaurants are closed at 9:00, and there is not the same sense of community...its hard to explain. Although there were some gorgeous buildings, obviously (it is still Europe), they did not have the same feel as the other cities we visited. Anyways, we did find some things to do. We walked around and found a palace that we briefly looked in. Then we made the terrible choice to eat at a Mexican restaurant...it was so bad. Then I split off with one of my friends and we went shopping a little bit then just found a small cafe by the Danube River and chatted for a couple hours. That may be one of my favorite things to do here in Europe--just go find a place to sit and chill for a little while without feeling rushed or guilty.

Then the next morning we went to another ex-Communist housing area called Petrzalka. This one was different from Nowa Huta in Krakow because it was bigger, more spread out, and many of the buildings had been painted bright colors. Here, too, we visited an NGO that makes craft projects with mentally disabled individuals. This was really neat to actually go and see them working and everything. Everyone was super nice and really welcoming to us. That night we went to a concert of an American rock group called Animal Collective. Some of the people in our group were really big fans, so the concert was a lot of fun for them, and I enjoyed it too.

So then the next day (almost done) I went to Vienna for a small side trip with 3 others from my group (everyone else returned to Prague). This was a really neat experience just to be able to see one more city and get to experience it in comparison with the others. Vienna, obviously, was super nice and absolutely gorgeous. It felt like everywhere you turned there was either a palace or museum or church. Some highlights from the trip were seeing all the architecture, eating Sacher Cake at Hotel Sacher, and seeing the Belvedere palace and all the beautiful art in it (including Klimt's "The Kiss" and "Judith").

So, as you can see, I'm absolutely loving Central Europe and trying to "soak it all up" before its over!! I apologize for the less frequent, massive posts I've been writing and I'll try to update more frequently. Again, I hope everything is going well whereever you are!

Betsy